Chobani Zero Sugar
CHICAGO - A class action lawsuit over sugar-free claims in Chobani yogurt has left a bad taste in a federal judge's mouth.
Chicago judge John Tharp on May 29 threw out a case that relied on the idea four grams of allulose need to be included on the nutrition label under sugar. But the Food and Drug Administration's guidance on it authorizes Chobani to claim its yogurt is free from sugar.
Chobani should have included an asterisk that pointed to consumers to clarifications that it "adds a trivial amount of sugar," lawyers at Rathje Woodward and Burke Law Offices alleged in a May 2023 complaint. Chobani has since added it in the ingredients list on allulose.
"Chobani's inclusion of an allulose asterisk in the updated label says nothing about the applicability of the Allulose Guidance to the Labeling Regulation, and to the extent the inclusion might be improper (as opposed to, say, unnecessary), the plaintiffs have forfeited that argument by failing to raise it here," Tharp wrote.
Four individual plaintiffs sought to lead a class action against the company on behalf of customers who think they were tricked into paying more for zero-sugar yogurt than they would have had they'd known about allulose, a low-calorie sugar.
They said Chobani Zero Sugar contains four grams of allulose per serving. The FDA has never definitively said whether allulose is a sugar for purposes of its nutrition-panel regulations.
It was nine years ago it said it needed "additional time" to respond to a citizen petition. Though it indicated allulose should be included in the total sugars declaration, it did not reach a final decision.
In 2020, the FDA reached a nonbinding guidance that had food-makers free to exclude allulose from the total sugars declaration. This is because allulose does not meaningfully increase blood glucose or insulin levels or cause cavities.
The FDA granted a permit to Chobani to sell yogurt using ultrafiltered nonfat milk with the addition of sweeteners in 2023. Its label for Chobani Zero Sugar was approved, meaning the class action was preempted by federal authority.
Chobani argued in its motion to dismiss the plaintiffs were seeking to impose different requirements than those enforced by the FDA.
